Posts Tagged ‘Andrey Savov’

A couple weekends ago, I had the opportunity to play my first rated chess games in almost two years! I had no idea whether the rust would show, but seeing as I was competing as a representative of the state of NH, in what I believe was only my second team event since high school, I put a little study in prior and sought to concentrate fully.

My first game was a blast, and it made me very happy to discover my tactical vision had survived the unplanned hiatus.

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After the dust cleared, we all took a lengthy lunch break with ample time to wander around Portsmouth, NH enjoying the nice weather and plentiful food options. I left the guys at the nearest sandwich shop and kept walking to one of my old regular dining spots when I used to work in town — a vegan smoothie and wrap place that’s changed hands many times, the menu remaining essentially the same throughout.

Game 2 with colors reversed had fewer fireworks as White blundered a pawn early. After rebuffing his attack, I was able to grind out the win with the extra material. The ironic thing is, during my pre-match preparations, I could only find a few games of my opponent, all with him as White. So, it was this game for which I was more prepared; I knew he would play the 6.Bg5 of the Samisch and was looking forward to the skirmish.

For more pictures, check out this write-up from ChessMaine.net. There you’ll see a couple closer glimpses of me in mid-ponder and a really good one of Andrey deep in thought. Oh, and one of the library where we battled.